Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley Calif gets ready to ward off sludge compost company

[Maureen Reilly]

Barstow
Desert Dispatch
January 30, 2007


Sludge meeting tonight, opposed residents look to regroup
By AARON AUPPERLEE

Staff Writer

HINKLEY - Hinkley and other area residents opposed to a proposed Nursery 
Products sludge composting site at the abandoned Hawes airfield will meet 
tonight at the Hinkley fire hall.

Norm Diaz, a local activist against the composting site, said concerned 
citizens would regroup at the meeting and begin preparations for the Feb. 
27 appeal before the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

Diaz also said he would use the meeting to update people on his recent 
one-day jaunt to Sacramento. While in the state's capitol, Diaz met with 16 
state assemblymen and senators from San Bernardino and surrounding counties 
to inform them about the sludge facility. He said many of them expressed 
interest and requested more information.

"Of course it is a county issue and not a state issue, but I think it is 
important for state legislators to know about it," he said.

Another meeting will be held in addition to tonight's meeting before the 
Board of Supervisors meeting, although Diaz was not sure when and where. He 
is also working on re-organizing buses to take people to San Bernardino for 
the meeting.

Diaz and Nursery Products representatives will also appear on a local radio 
station during February to debate the issue. KSZL, 1230 AM, will host Diaz 
on Feb. 7 and Chris Seney, director of operations for Nursery Products and 
Alan Rubin, a former Environmental Protection Agency biosolids scientist, on 
Feb. 14. There are tentative plans for a debate between the two sides on 
Feb. 21.